The company that lets staff vote for its CEO annually

Typically, a replacement CEO is chosen by a selected group of people within the company - or outsourced.

However, this isn’t the case for Haufe. The global management and HR company lets their workforce vote for their CEO every year (January, to be precise, just before the firm’s annual strategy weekend).

This strategy began four years ago when Hermann Arnold, then Chairman, decided to step down. A democratic process to elect the worldwide CEO and US CEO – amongst other senior positions including Chair and CTO -  commenced thereafter.  

Candidates are self-nominated three months prior to the election and votes cast are anonymous. The choices are 'yes, definitely'; ‘yes, positively’; ‘yes, tentatively’; ‘no, look for alternative candidate externally’.